Role in IT decision-making process:Align Business & IT GoalsCreate IT StrategyDetermine IT NeedsManage Vendor RelationshipsEvaluate/Specify Brands or VendorsOther RoleAuthorize PurchasesNot Involved

Work Phone:

Company:

Company Size:

Industry:

Street Address

City:

Zip/postal code

State/Province:

Country:

Occasionally, we send subscribers special offers from select partners. Would you like to receive these special partner offers via e-mail?YesNo

Your registration with Eweek will include the following free email newsletter(s):News & Views

By submitting your wireless number, you agree that eWEEK, its related properties, and vendor partners providing content you view may contact you using contact center technology. Your consent is not required to view content or use site features.

By clicking on the "Register" button below, I agree that I have carefully read the Terms of Service and the Privacy Policy and I agree to be legally bound by all such terms.

Oracle Free VM Offering Raises Eyebrows

Oracle is the latest player to jump into the virtualization market, and the news helped cut the price of VMware shares.

But VMware did not hesitate to respond to the announcement Oracle made Nov. 12 at its OpenWorld conference in San Francisco regarding its plans to offer free server virtualization software.

"Oracles introduction of yet another variant of Xen is clearly a response to the significant virtualization industry that VMware has established," said Parag Patel, vice president of alliances at VMware. "The offering does not address the capabilities required to achieve the cost savings and IT simplification that customers are realizing everyday from VMwares Virtual Infrastructure."

The sniping was in reaction to Oracle VM, which will be available for free download on Nov. 14 and which Oracle officials contend offers scalable, low-cost server virtualization up to three times more efficient than rival offerings. The product, which is based on the open-source Xen hypervisor technology, features both Windows and Linux support and includes an integrated Web browser- based management console.

Further reading

To speed installation and deployment, Oracle VM utilizes preconfigured Virtual Machine images of Oracle Database and Oracle Enterprise Linux. In addition, it is certified to work on Oracle Database, Oracle Fusion Middleware and Oracle Applications.

"Customers can now optimize resource consolidation by deploying Oracle VM with Oracle Unbreakable Linux and run the full Oracle software stack—Oracle Database, Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Enterprise Manager and Oracle Applications—all with one worldwide support call," said Edward Screven, Oracles chief corporate architect, in a statement.

"With Oracle VM, customers can respond more rapidly to business changes, increase ROI and reduce lifetime total cost of ownership. Oracle VM brings enterprise-class support and backing to server virtualization, giving customers the confidence to deploy virtualized solutions," he said.

Although Oracle VM is free to download, 24/7 support comes with a per-system price tag. Servers with up to two CPUs are $499 per year per system, and servers with unlimited CPUs are priced at $999 per year per system.

The release of Oracle VM puts the company in a competitive but growing market. Patel said many VMware customers use Oracle products and that the company will keep working closely with Oracle to serve mutual customers.

Charles King, an analyst with Pund-IT, said Oracle has an opportunity to make some noise in the market before Microsoft introduces its stand-alone hypervisor product next year. Calling the virtualization market potentially very lucrative for Oracle, King noted however that VMware has achieved leadership in the space for a reason and that rivals have found challenging the company to be difficult.

"If Im VMware, I would probably say, Welcome to the party; lets take a close look at your solution," he said.

Check out eWEEK.coms for the latest news, views and analysis on servers, switches and networking protocols for the enterprise and small businesses.

By submitting your information, you agree that eweek.com may send you eWEEK offers via email, phone and text message, as well as email offers about other products and services that eWEEK believes may be of interest to you. eWEEK will process your information in accordance with the Quinstreet Privacy Policy.

We ran into a problem

We already have your email address on file. Please use the "Forgot your password?" link to create a password, validate your email and login.